Plaça de Sant Jaume

This guide to Plaça de Sant Jaume in Barcelona starts with a stone dragon carved above a doorway in 1418, forever mid-battle with Sant Jordi, Catalonia's patron saint, and the legend of a sacrificed princess and a rose grown from the dragon's blood. It traces how that single flower gave rise to a Lovers' Fair here around 1840, later joined by book stalls timed to a shared date in literary history. You'll also hear about the square's much older role as a Roman crossroads, and what has gathered here since.